Representative Oliver presented his bill, H.278, to the House Education Committee on Tuesday. The bill proposes to require the Vermont State Colleges, the University of Vermont, and the State Agricultural College to give preference in admissions to eligible students who are residents of the state and who have completed a career technical education program in a subject matter or industry the postsecondary school offers.

Oliver shared a personal story about the bill. His daughter when to the Career and Technical Education (CTE) center in Essex and took dental hygiene and got top honors. She was also on the deans list at the school, but was unable to get into a Vermont college and wound up going to Maine. He wants to keep Vermont students here in the state for all trades. There is a bill regarding dental hygiene currently in the legislature, but his focus is on all trades and keeping Vermont students should be part of the definition of ‘eligible’ when applying to our in-state schools.